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Summer Reading List

DreaminDeacon said:
I was just coming here to ask if anyone has read this yet. I've been curious about it for years, but have been warded off by its structure and my fear of it being weird just for the sake of being weird. My office mate was raving about it over the weekend, however, so I think I'm going to pick it up.
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This was exactly my mindset. It takes a great deal more concentration than any other book I have ever read, but I'm really liking it so far.
 
Just finished Visit From the Goon Squad by Egan (Pulitzer winner this year). Pretty good, but you need to read it in no more than two or three sittings to keep all the characters straight.

I have never read any James Joyce so I just started Portrait of the Artist last night. Not doing much for me so far but I will stick with it.
 
Just finished "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by Sedaris. Funny. Not as funny as "Me Talk Pretty One Day" but still funny.

when-you-are-engulfed-in-flame.jpg
 
A few weeks ago, I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, which I thought was very good, although a little longer than it needed to be.

And then I read Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. My first read of any of his stuff and I really enjoyed it.

I'm currently working through Storming Las Vegas, the story of a Cuban who robbed several casinos and armored trucks in Vegas in the late 90s/early 2000s. Pretty interesting, and something I really don't remember hearing anything about when it initially happened.
 
Wake Forest said:
A few weeks ago, I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, which I thought was very good, although a little longer than it needed to be.

And then I read Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. My first read of any of his stuff and I really enjoyed it.

I'm currently working through Storming Las Vegas, the story of a Cuban who robbed several casinos and armored trucks in Vegas in the late 90s/early 2000s. Pretty interesting, and something I really don't remember hearing anything about when it initially happened.
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I read the first 100 or so pages of Kavalier & Clay a year or two ago and absolutely hated it.
 
Wake Forest said:
A few weeks ago, I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, which I thought was very good, although a little longer than it needed to be.

And then I read Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. My first read of any of his stuff and I really enjoyed it.

I'm currently working through Storming Las Vegas, the story of a Cuban who robbed several casinos and armored trucks in Vegas in the late 90s/early 2000s. Pretty interesting, and something I really don't remember hearing anything about when it initially happened.
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I love Palahniuk's early work and cannot recommend Invisible Monsters enough if you liked Choke. I thought his last 3 or 4 books were mediocre-to-terrible, unfortunately.
 
DreaminDeacon said:
I love Palahniuk's early work and cannot recommend Invisible Monsters enough if you liked Choke. I thought his last 3 or 4 books were mediocre-to-terrible, unfortunately.
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Ugh, I still cringe when I think about how I sat around reading Haunted, waiting for it to get better.

Choke was awesome, though.
 
wfudkn said:
I read the first 100 or so pages of Kavalier & Clay a year or two ago and absolutely hated it.
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Push through the first 100 pages or so (which I didn't think were bad) and you'll be rewarded. Kavalier and Clay was an amazing read. I will agree that it was a little longer than it needed to be. Great story!
 
DeaconForever said:
Push through the first 100 pages or so (which I didn't think were bad) and you'll be rewarded. Kavalier and Clay was an amazing read. I will agree that it was a little longer than it needed to be. Great story!
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Already donated it to the book drop. But I can appreciate that there are books that take some time to develop, but I don't know if I want to but it again and take that chance. One such book for me that I did push through on was "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke - it took maybe 200 pages for me to get into but was excellent once I did.

That said, I really did like Chabon's "Mysteries of Pittsburgh", though.
 
Has anyone read life of pi? Just finished it this weekend...
 
I've browsed the last 2 pages of this thread and thought I'd chime in.

I thought Kavalier and Clay was amazing, along with all of Chabon's other books. He's up there on my favorite author's list.

I remember liking Life of Pi a lot, but it's been many years.

House of Leaves is one of my favorite books of all time. Tried to read Danielewski's next novel, Only Revolutions, which is even more of a chore to read, and it was awful. One hit wonder, IMO.

Agree about "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell", took a while to get into, but it was very good. I bet you bought it because it was on the cheap book pile at B&N (I know I did)!

I personally think Palahniuk is one of the most overrated authors of our generation, but I admittedly did kind of like Choke, and Fight Club was of course good. I think all of his other writing is complete garbage.

I'm currently on book 9 of the Wheel of Time series (don't care if it makes me a nerd, I love good fantasy novels). I love good in-depth story-telling, and this series has it in droves. Certainly takes a while to get through, but it's worth it so far.

Other books I've read recently that were worth noting: Stephen King's Dark Tower series, The Dragonbone Chair series by Tad Williams, The Historian by I forget who. I'd recommend all of them.
 
spiffylubes said:
I've browsed the last 2 pages of this thread and thought I'd chime in.

I thought Kavalier and Clay was amazing, along with all of Chabon's other books. He's up there on my favorite author's list.

Responding to pieces of your post here, starting with Chabon. He's really hit or miss for me. I really liked Yiddish Policeman's Union, but Kavalier and Clay was a bit too episodic and jumpy for me, though I did appreciate the humor and depth of character that is so typically Chabon.

I personally think Palahniuk is one of the most overrated authors of our generation, but I admittedly did kind of like Choke, and Fight Club was of course good. I think all of his other writing is complete garbage.

I agree with this. He's a decent pop writer with two or three great books, and a bunch of garbage. Fight Club is one of the strange examples, like I think Leaves of Grass, another book you mentioned will, of an even better on-screen depiction than the book.
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my thoughts in green
 
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spiffylubes said:
I'm currently on book 9 of the Wheel of Time series (don't care if it makes me a nerd, I love good fantasy novels). I love good in-depth story-telling, and this series has it in droves. Certainly takes a while to get through, but it's worth it so far.
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Book 9 is slow, book 10 kind of stinks, but it gets better (again) after that. Sanderson isn't half the write Jordan was, however.


Finally finished Bleak House (good, but didn't like it as much as Copperfield or Two Cities) and have started on The Guns of Port Hudson.
 
OldGoldBeard said:
Book 9 is slow, book 10 kind of stinks, but it gets better (again) after that. Sanderson isn't half the write Jordan was, however.


Finally finished Bleak House (good, but didn't like it as much as Copperfield or Two Cities) and have started on The Guns of Port Hudson.
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That's what I've heard. I'm actually enjoying book 9 right now, about halfway through. Not a ton of action, but still enjoyable.
 
OldGoldBeard said:
Book 9 is slow, book 10 kind of stinks, but it gets better (again) after that. Sanderson isn't half the write Jordan was, however.
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I couldn't get through 9, just didn't have the appeal for me...maybe I should try again
 
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